If I were to ask what others think of love poetry, I'm sure 90% would quote "Roses are red..." and leave it at that.
If I were to say I was reading "love poetry" I feel it would be poetry that indulges in the emotional side of relationships. Love poetry isn't always lovely and sappy. Sometimes:
~ It is bitter, like a women scorned by love. Look at Hemman's "Properzia Rossi"
"Thou, lov'd so vainly! I would leave enshrined...Of lost affection;--something that may prove/What she hath been, whose melancholy love..."
~It is heroic, like many of Hemman's poems. ("The Bride of the Greek Isle")
~It may even be religious. There are numerous poems that discuss a deep and intense love for their God and religion, and poets who doubt or contemplate it (E.B.B).
~ It is sad and tortured, losing the love of your life.
Michael Field, 'Lo, my loved is dying, and the call'
"Lo, my love is dying, and the call
Is come that I must die,
All the leaves are dying, all
Dying, drifting by.
Every leaf is lonely in its fall,
Every flower has its speck and stain..."
That last line resonated in me. Everything is tainted by the death of their love. A flower, a symbol of the feminine and love is stained. Forever marked. This is right before Edith dies, and Katherine knows of her own cancer.
~It discusses the typical marriage plot.In Constance Naden's "Love Versus Learning" she writes about a freedom that is lost in courtship/matrimony:
My fate overtook me at last:
I saw, and I heard, and I wavered,
I smiled, and my freedom was past (241).
I really enjoyed this poem. It speaks volumes about the Victorian representation of love and courtship. The term “Versus” suggests she is comparing two things, perhaps the female versus male identity in terms of courtship. It also brings to mind thoughts on a “lively mind” which this narrator clearly has as she speculates about the type of man she should marry. I think Naden is witty and sarcastic, and her lines are funny with raw honesty. The narrator, once smiling at the potential love, is sucked in. Her "freedom was past" and despite all of the shortcomings she sees within him, "And often I think we must part/But compliments so scientific /Recapture my fluttering heart." So in the end, she very flippantly explains "But hark! I must cease from my musing,/ For that is his knock at the door!" This example of a "love" poem deals with the pressures of society versus the goals a woman might have. She might marry a philosopher, or a scholar, but settles for someone who "appears" to have similar qualities. There is also commentary at work here about science versus love perhaps, or the truth versus the aesthetic? The narrator appears to value the mind, but when speaking of science "He calls me a dear little goose." So, the poem also discusses what one gives up in love.
~And finally, to be extremely random, love poetry might be loving the self, the individual, or a freedom one can't have when in love (Naden). Even though staunchly political, I see "Song in Myself" by Whitman to be a poem about loving the individual and freedom: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
One more. Love can also be seen as love for a companion. Female companionship was a very common thing during the time period, and while I don't have any examples to share right now, it is one of the strongest forms of love during 19th/20th century.
Monday Love Poetry
If I were to ask what others think of love poetry, I'm sure 90% would quote "Roses are red..." and leave it at that.
If I were to say I was reading "love poetry" I feel it would be poetry that indulges in the emotional side of relationships. Love poetry isn't always lovely and sappy. Sometimes:
~ It is bitter, like a women scorned by love. Look at Hemman's "Properzia Rossi"
"Thou, lov'd so vainly! I would leave enshrined...Of lost affection;--something that may prove/What she hath been, whose melancholy love..."
~It is heroic, like many of Hemman's poems. ("The Bride of the Greek Isle")
~It may even be religious. There are numerous poems that discuss a deep and intense love for their God and religion, and poets who doubt or contemplate it (E.B.B).
~ It is sad and tortured, losing the love of your life.
Michael Field, 'Lo, my loved is dying, and the call'
"Lo, my love is dying, and the call
Is come that I must die,
All the leaves are dying, all
Dying, drifting by.
Every leaf is lonely in its fall,
Every flower has its speck and stain..."
That last line resonated in me. Everything is tainted by the death of their love. A flower, a symbol of the feminine and love is stained. Forever marked. This is right before Edith dies, and Katherine knows of her own cancer.
~It discusses the typical marriage plot. In Constance Naden's "Love Versus Learning" she writes about a freedom that is lost in courtship/matrimony:
My fate overtook me at last:
I saw, and I heard, and I wavered,
I smiled, and my freedom was past (241).
I really enjoyed this poem. It speaks volumes about the Victorian representation of love and courtship. The term “Versus” suggests she is comparing two things, perhaps the female versus male identity in terms of courtship. It also brings to mind thoughts on a “lively mind” which this narrator clearly has as she speculates about the type of man she should marry. I think Naden is witty and sarcastic, and her lines are funny with raw honesty. The narrator, once smiling at the potential love, is sucked in. Her "freedom was past" and despite all of the shortcomings she sees within him, "And often I think we must part/But compliments so scientific /Recapture my fluttering heart." So in the end, she very flippantly explains "But hark! I must cease from my musing,/ For that is his knock at the door!" This example of a "love" poem deals with the pressures of society versus the goals a woman might have. She might marry a philosopher, or a scholar, but settles for someone who "appears" to have similar qualities. There is also commentary at work here about science versus love perhaps, or the truth versus the aesthetic? The narrator appears to value the mind, but when speaking of science "He calls me a dear little goose." So, the poem also discusses what one gives up in love.
~And finally, to be extremely random, love poetry might be loving the self, the individual, or a freedom one can't have when in love (Naden). Even though staunchly political, I see "Song in Myself" by Whitman to be a poem about loving the individual and freedom:
"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
One more. Love can also be seen as love for a companion. Female companionship was a very common thing during the time period, and while I don't have any examples to share right now, it is one of the strongest forms of love during 19th/20th century.